Both are mayors with a long history who have just renewed absolute majorities that allow them to govern alone, by a wide margin, two renowned tourist emporiums: Benidorm and Torrevieja. Both Toni Pérez, in the city of skyscrapers, and Eduardo Dolón, in the municipality of Vega Baja, have today shown their explicit support for LGTBI mobilizations, attending the display of rainbow flags and the reading of manifestos in which the The affected community has not evaded condemning the threat that Vox’s presence in the institutions poses to them.
“The times that are coming may not be the most hopeful for our rights, but we will never stop making noise”, has been heard in Torrevieja from the mouth of the King of Carnival 2023, Damián Bear, who has read the manifesto in the presence of Dolón .
In the act, there have been no shortage of critical references to the postulates of the extreme right and even to a recent intervention by Feijóo that caused controversy: “Because those harsh divorces, which some use to legitimize violence against women, need opposition. Because machismo and gender violence exists and needs to be opposed. Because gender is not an ideology and the LGTBIQ collective is not a lobby. Because the concept of family is not watertight, it is not a man and a woman having children.”
Criticism has not been lacking in Benidorm either, in this case pronounced by Chelo Oliva, president of ALGTBenidorm Marina Baixa, who has read the manifesto, and has highlighted the 130% growth in “complaints of attacks” against the group in 2022 and the prominence of “hate speech” in the current political scene, against which he has advocated for the punishment of these crimes “classified in our judicial system.”
The president of ALGTBenidorm has stressed that the LGTBI collective “is not going to allow even a step back in equality and rights” and has asked for the support of the institutions “to achieve respect” which, she has stressed, “there is no other way to achieve it than with education, education and more education.”
The truth is that both municipalities, as they have been doing for years, have been involved in the organization of the respective events, parades included. The one in Torrevieja will take place starting this week, culminating with the great party on July 8, and the Benidorm Gay-Parade will be, as is traditional, in September, with a “spectacular” program of events that the council intends to announce next week.
Not only these tourist towns, but also the Costa Blanca Provincial Tourism Board, dependent on the Provincial Council chaired by Carlos Mazón, have carried out numerous promotions as gay-friendly destinations at fairs in Spain, such as Fitur, and Europe.
The popular leader has highlighted on several occasions that in this regard he does not share Vox’s theses at all, and after the government agreement, after the controversial statements by a relevant member of Vox in the Valencian Community, the deputy José María Llanos, denying the existence of gender violence, he tried to get out of the way by denying the new “partner” and reaffirming that his government will not take any step back in this regard.
